Prepping for Santa

It was Christmas Eve and we had a very important job to do. We had to make Santa some cookies! So we packed Grandma and Grandpa Neel, Uncle Lee, Dad, Mom and Logan into the kitchen to do some work. Dough was made. Designs had to be chosen. Then the baking commenced. Frosting had to be made and all of the glittery sugar came out of the pantry. Everyone decorated and I am sure we all had a cookie or two. Logan wanted to try one of every shape.

 
Next up on our Eve agenda was to put on our new Christmas pajamas. I finished sewing our snowman pants the day before, or something crazy like that. This was our 3rd year for Christmas pajamas. Some day I hope to make Logan a quilt of all the material used over the years.

Then we gathered around the tube to watch a new Christmas special. I was not organized enough so we had to find something on Netflix. Lucky for us there was a Mickey Mouse Christmas special. He loved some of it, liked parts of it and didn't like the Scrooge story.

Finally it was time to prep the cookie plate. It was soooo hard to leave those cookies there, but we convinced him it was the right thing to do. 

A little boy slept well that night and in the morning discovered Santa had indeed visited our home! Between Santa, Grandparents, loved ones and Mom & Dad, Logan scored big this year.

Did I mention that Logan scored big! Look what Santa brought our energetic boy.

A little break for some food and the gift opening continued.

Later that day, Logan had vanished into his room. He hardly ever does that so I went to investigate. I discovered him having a "picnic" with his buddies. I had never seen him do that before. He had crackers for each of them and was having a wonderful time filling his tummy.

The day after Christmas the boys went outside to enjoy the falling snow.

Frak smartly stayed indoors enjoying the sunny parts of the carpet.

After a wonderful visit, Grandma and Grandpa Neel and Uncle Lee left on the 27th. Logan and Dad spent some quality time eating oranges in front of our heater in the kitchen.

Later that night I was playing upstairs with Logan and his balloons. I hid them in my robe and he thought my new figure was hilarious. We had to run downstairs and show Dad. Logan said something like "Mom has huge boobs!" Then Kyle said something like "She sure does." Logan finished the exchange with asking Dad: "Do you like that?" Laughter ensued.

Let it snow - December continued

We saw more snow mid-December. Logan and I tried out his toddler toboggan, but it wasn't much of a hit. Instead we spent our time chasing each other, throwing snowballs at the neighborhood kids' giant snowman and making our own tiny snowman.

That is our house in the background.

They might be planning a house attack.

Here is our tiny snowman.

I spent some time trying to get a few homemade gifts done. Every year we trade home made gifts with our Seattle family. It has become one of my favorite traditions. I am always so excited to see what they made. I'm pretty proud of the gifts I made this year, including the Dr. Who quilt.

For my niece, Rowan, who loves Teen Titan.

For my Halloween loving niece, Brontë.

Kyle turned 40 this year and I threw him a little party. His parents and many friends came up for the celebration. We ate a lot, played in the park, played cards and ate some more.

This is Logan's Christmas gift. A super soft blanket and jacket.

I attempted a Jawa cake, but it fell below my expectations. Still tasted good though.

Kyle attempted to blow out 40 candles. Unlucky for him, they kept relighting.

After all of the chaos was over it was time for a nice bath followed by sitting in front of the heater in our kitchen. We sat there a lot this past winter.